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LOWELL, Mass. -- Freshman outside hitter Masha Yelsukova (Santa Clara, Calif.) notched a match-high 16 kills to lead the UMass Lowell women's volleyball team to a 3-1 victory (23-25, 25-23, 25-21, 25-20) against NJIT in its home opener on Saturday afternoon at Costello Athletic Center.

With the victory, the River Hawks improve to 2-15 overall on the season, while the Highlanders fall to 4-12 overall.

"There is a lot of adrenaline that goes into your first home match, so we just talked about using it and we wanted to come out fired up," said Head Coach Resa Provanzano. "We keep talking about playing like the score is 0-0, we need people to step up, want the ball and want to put it away. We saw people start working harder, transitioning and wanting to be available in helping open things up for our setter and give her a lot of options, which helped out a lot. It's great to finally be at home and I love the energy and hope that we can capture that energy all the time and use it as a learning experience."

Seniors Ella Merrill (Bermuda Dunes, Calif.) and Anisa Smith (Moraga, Calif.) also finished the match with 13 (.419 hit%) and 12 kills (.344 hit%), respectively. Smith also totaled a team-high 16 digs in the win for the River Hawks, while junior setter Kylee Chun ran the River Hawks' offense with 43 assists and 10 digs. Senior libero Hannah Rey (San Diego, Calif.) and freshman defensive specialist Mallorie McIver (Austin, Texas) both anchored the UMass Lowell defense with 12 and 11 digs, respectively.

UMass started the first set with a 6-0 lead on the strong serving of Chun, but NJIT went on an 8-1 run to end the match. The River Hawks notched 15 kills to go along with a .256 hitting percentage to take the third set by a 25-21 score. Smith ended the match with a service ace to give the River Hawks their first Division I victory at home.

The River Hawks return to action on Friday, October 3rd against conference foe Albany at the Costello Athletic Center (7 p.m.).